Observations

Some thoughts and observations from my first 2 months in France: 

• Everyone in France has the same ringtone. It may sound as if I'm exaggerating, but it's actually true. Every time I am on the bus or tram and someone's phone starts ringing, literally every person on board will pull out his/her phone. Including me. It's confusing!

• Schools tend to teach mainly British English. I was told by a teacher I speak incorrectly when I asked a student "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" instead of "Have you got any brothers or sisters?" I feel that using "have you got" or "I have got" is extremely rare in the U.S. and, as an English teacher, I would never teach my students that "do you have" or "I have" is wrong. It's annoying sometimes because my classes are lucky to have an authentic English speaker, but it's ruins the authenticity when I am forced to use phrases I otherwise wouldn't.

• French people really enjoy correcting grammar. Or maybe it's just my grammar they enjoy correcting. I don't blame them.

• I have been here for a little over 2 months now and I don't know if my French has improved at all. I do speak French as much as I can and I hear it all the time, I guess the improvements have just not been noticeable to me yet. I'm thinking of taking a French class in the Spring to help things along.

• French people love the Chicago Bulls!

• Whenever I meet students, I'm always asked how old I am and if I like French guys. And French food.

As far as news, I don't have much except that Thanksgiving was last week and though I was sad not to be at home with my family, I had a great time celebrating here. I had a huge Thanksgiving dinner with many other assistants. It was really cool because there were a lot of Americans, but there were also assistants from England, Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, and Argentina. So for a lot of people it was their first ever Thanksgiving and I thought it was really nice being able to share it with everyone. We each brought different dishes and even had a huge turkey (which is really difficult to find in France!) I made pumpkin squares and I have never had so much trouble baking something in my life. I had to substitute half the ingredients because they're not available in France so I was afraid it would taste different. There is also no canned pumpkin here so I had to buy an actual pumpkin and cook it. Then there was the problem of no measuring cups or really anything at all with measurements, and an oven that does not have the temperature. Luckily, somehow the pumpkin squares still turned out good and most of the non-Americans got to try it for the first time.

Here is everyone from Thanksgiving: